Rebound Effects in German Residential Heating: Do Ownership and Income Matter?

Abstract

In this paper, by using panel data and a fixed effects model, we estimate the direct rebound effect related to space heating in German residential households. The data used are from a representative repeated survey among some 11,000 households in Germany provided by the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW Berlin). We find that for the size of the direct rebound effect, i.e. the amount of energy consumption “taken back” when energy efficiency rises, income and ownership matter significantly. The estimated rebound effects for the different household groups range between 12% for owners (income class “all”) and 49% for tenants (income class “low”). Tenants are found to have much higher rebound effects. Higherincome owner households have a slightly higher rebound than lower income households (14% vs. 13%), whereas for tenant households the outcome is reversed (31% vs. 49%). We conclude that energy rebound effects in the residential sector should be tackled in energy policy making in a differentiated way, and certainly not ignored in energy efficiency policies.